Inversion of the Degradation Coefficient of Petroleum Hydrocarbon Pollutants in Laizhou Bay

When petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants enter the ocean, besides the migration under hydrodynamic constraints, their degradation due to environmental conditions also occurs. However, available observations are usually spatiotemporally disperse, which makes it difficult to study the degradation characteristics of pollutants. In this paper, a model of transport and degradation is used to estimate the degradation coefficient of petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants with the adjoint method. Firstly, the results of a comprehensive physical–chemical–biological test of the degradation of petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants in Laizhou Bay provide a reference for setting the degradation coefficient on the time scale. In ideal twin experiments, the mean absolute errors between observations and simulation results obtain an obvious reduction, and the given distributions can be inverted effectively, demonstrating the feasibility of the model. In a practical experiment, the actual distribution of petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants in Laizhou Bay is simulated, and the simulation results are in good agreement with the observed ones. Meanwhile, the spatial distribution of the degradation coefficient is inverted, making the simulation results closer to the actual observations.

Service Life Prediction and Lateral Bearing Capacity Analysis of Piles Considering Coupled Corrosion-Temperature Deterioration Processes

High temperatures can enhance the chloride diffusion coefficient and this poses a threat to reinforced concrete (RC) piles. This study intends to propose predictive models that can evaluate the service life and lateral bearing behaviour of reinforced concrete piles subjected to marine environments and varying temperatures. The models show that temperature can accelerate the diffusion rate of chloride and increase the concentration of free chloride in concrete. The distribution law of chloride concentration is obtained by considering the ageing effect as well. Deterministic and probabilistic models are proposed to assess the time to corrosion initiation and propagation. The stiffness degradation coefficient is introduced in the analysis of the lateral bearing capacity of RC piles. The results show that high temperature can decrease the service life of piles and the life spans obtained from deterministic and probabilistic methods are similar; however, the predictions of the latter are more conservative. Temperature can enhance the current density and boost corrosion products, which leads to pile cracking. The rust appearing on the steel surface would make the stiffness degradation coefficient drop sharply. The lateral bearing capacity analysis is conducted from the perspectives of shear force, displacement and bearing moment of the piles.

Simulation of the Parameters Effecting the Water Quality Evolution of Xuanwu Lake, China

After years of water environment improvement, China’s water quality has improved to some extent in recent years. However, different water areas have different characteristics of water pollution. The paper used mathematical models to investigate the influence of different parameters on the water quality of Xuanwu Lake, China. The predominant focus was on the nutrients concentration due to changing the amount of pollutants, degradation coefficient, water diversion discharge and diffusion coefficient. The results showed that the amount of pollutants had the most significant impact, followed by the degradation coefficient. The total phosphorus and total nitrogen concentrations of Xuanwu Lake increased with the increase of the amount of pollutants. The water quality of Xuanwu Lake decreased significantly with the increase of degradation coefficient. Increasing the water diversion discharge will not only make a big difference in water quality, but it will also worsen the water quality. The effect of the amount of pollutants on Xuanwu Lake total phosphorus and total nitrogen is 4.1 and 5.7 times that of water diversion discharge. The influence of total phosphorus and total nitrogen in the degradation coefficient scheme is 3.5 and 6.2 times that of the water diversion discharge scheme. The diffusion coefficient has almost no effect on the water quality of Xuanwu Lake. From the practical difficulty and implementation effect of water environment improvement, the order of water quality improvement effect from good to bad is as follows: the amount of pollutants scheme, degradation coefficient scheme, water diversion scheme, diffusion coefficient scheme. Under the circumstance of limited water diversion, the lake will effectively improve the water quality. Reducing the discharge of pollutants is the fundamental measure to control water environment problems, and water diversion is an auxiliary measure to improve the water ecology. It will become a trend to combine the reduction of pollutant discharge and water transfer for water environment improvement. This paper is of significance for improving the water quality of Xuanwu Lake, and it also provides a scientific method for water environment improvement of water diversion projects.

Compound Fault Diagnosis and Sequential Prognosis for Electric Scooter with Uncertainties

This paper addresses diagnosis and prognosis problems for an electric scooter subjected to parameter uncertainties and compound faults (i.e., permanent fault and intermittent fault with non-monotonic degradation). First, the diagnostic bond graph in linear fractional transformation form is used to model the uncertain electric scooter and derive the analytical redundancy relations incorporating the nominal part and uncertain part, based on which the adaptive thresholds for robust fault detection and the fault signature matrix for fault isolation can be obtained. Second, an adaptive enhanced unscented Kalman filter is proposed to identify the fault magnitudes and distinguish the fault types where an auxiliary detector is introduced to capture the appearing and disappearing moments of intermittent fault. Third, a dynamic model with usage dependent degradation coefficient is developed to describe the degradation process of intermittent fault under various usage conditions. Due to the variation of degradation coefficient and the presence of non-monotonic degradation characteristic under some usage conditions, a sequential prognosis method is proposed where the reactivation of the prognoser is governed by the reactivation events. Finally, the proposed methods are validated by experiment results.

Study of Pollutant Degradation Coefficient in Natural Mangrove Forests

Natural mangrove wetlands located at the transition zone between upland and rivers usually act as an effective pollution buffer due to their function in degrading organic pollutants (BOD) in polluted water. The efficiency of mangrove is often reported based on the percentage of pollutant removals but the associated degradation kinetics have received little attention. This study looks at the pollutant degradation coefficient, k, of mangrove wetlands by on-site experiments at the wetland of the Brunei River, which is dominated by Rhizophera Apiculata and Sonneratia Alba. The mangroves experimented on were enclosed with timber and the pool has retained partially treated wastewater. Water samples were collected at the inlet and in the pool and then tested in several runs of experiments. The typical reaction kinetic model was used to estimate k and it was found that k has a mean and median of 0.43 and 0.47 (day-1) respectively. The value of k was further modified for saline water conditions and it was estimated to be 0.28 (day-1) with salinity of up to 20 ppt. These findings provide an insight of the reactions of pollutants in mangroves and can be used in water quality modelling of tropical rivers with mangrove forests.